


Don't run on wet wood

by boxofwonder



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, I promise it's nearly entirely fluff, Kageyama's still uncreative about cursing, No ball pens were hurt in the making of this story, but there's still a warning for drowning, everyone is dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 10:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1741451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxofwonder/pseuds/boxofwonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karasuno takes a trip to the lake on a hot summer's day.<br/>What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't run on wet wood

**Author's Note:**

> I have 478529374 things to write and yet here I am. Getting me to write this story went something like this: viria said a thing. triananero told me that thing. Inspiration struck like lightning. Everything went downhill from there and I blame those two 110% for it.

“Nobody gets into the water until you all put on sunscreen.” 

The groaning all around did nothing to get them out of this one. Daichi's expression was stern – his gaze managed to hold an already stripped down Nishinoya in place who was bouncing up and down on his feet with excitement, which was an incredible achievement in itself. 

When Suga passed several bottles of sunscreen around, Nishinoya and Tanaka nearly ripped off his hand trying to get one first. Tsukishima rolled his eyes, calmly waiting for Yamaguchi to get one for the two of them. Hinata had one in his bag already because his mother made him bring it along to the team's trip to the lake. He pulled his shirt over his head and threw it into the grass, hurriedly putting on the sunscreen. (It was sooo hot – he wanted to get into the water!)

By the time he realised Kageyama was still in shorts and his shirt, Hinata was nearly done with his upper body. 

“Do you want me to lend you some of my sunscreen?” 

“I don't need it.” 

Kageyama looked even more grumpy than usual which was puzzling since everybody had been looking forward to this trip. What the heck was his deal? Even Tsukishima seemed willing to get into the water and maybe have some fun. As much as a guy like him was capable of that anyway. 

He was about to demand an explanation or spray sunscreen on his neck, but got distracted by Yachi who was folding her summer dress and looked like she wanted to hide, even though she looked incredibly cute in her colourful bikini. 

“You're so pretty!” 

“You really are”, Kiyoko told her with a smile, and Yachi looked back and forth between Hinata and her with her mouth open before she squeezed her eyes shut and squeaked: “Thank you so much!” 

Half the team couldn't help but smile fondly at that. 

When everyone was finally ready and had sunscreen on – Daichi had made them fold their clothes, too, which caused some chaos as Tanaka, Nishinoya and Hinata tried to figure out where they had left half of their things – Nishinoya threw his hands up in the air and sprinted off alongside Tanaka, both wooping as they hit the pier and ran until they both jumped into the water in the middle of the lake. 

“Don't run on wet wood!”, Daichi called after them, but it was futile. 

The rest of the team followed more slowly. Kiyoko reached for Yachi's hand (Hinata couldn't help but smile at the expression on Yachi's face as she took it – her face was so red it looked like she already had a sunburn, but her smile was as wide as if she didn't even know how not to smile). Everyone else looked happy, too, when he looked around. Asahi had a little smile as he carried a beach ball, Yamaguchi walked backwards in front of Tsukishima, talking excitedly, Ennoshita broke into a jog like an afterthought, following the two already in the water. 

Suga patted Daichi's shoulder as he gave an exasperated sigh and looked just as eager to cool down from the incredible afternoon heat with a dip in the lake. 

The only one who apprently had brought his own personal rain cloud along was Kageyama, and it was pissing Hinata off. He wanted him to smile, too. Or at least take off his damn shirt. What was the point of going swimming if you didn't even change out of your normal clothes? 

“I bet I'm faster in the lake than you!” 

The usual spark of rivalry wasn't … there in the slightest, and for a second Hinata stumbled over his own feet. Kageyama _shrugged_. What the hell? 

“Go on ahead. I hate being wet, I'll stay on the shore.” 

“But - !” Hinata felt incredibly betrayed. He had been looking forward to swimming against Kageyama, playing along with beach balls and trying to dip his head under water (fully prepared to swallow five litres of lake water in the process of that fight). 

“But that's so boring! You can't do that! You'll die of boredom!” 

“What are you, an idiot? You can't die of boredom.” 

“Of course you can! I nearly died of boredome once.” 

“I don't believe you.” 

Hinata groaned. Kageyama was so annoying. 

“Are you coming or not?” 

“What don't you understand about 'go on ahead'? Just go splash around, we'll play volleyball eventually anyway.” 

Kageyama crossed his arms and the pout only intensified. Apparently there was no reasoning with him today, so when Nishinoya called for him to hurry up, Hinata let it go and sped up to jump into the water as well. He didn't care anyway whether Kageyama followed or not.   
(Kageyama wouldn't follow in the first place – they would run side by side.) 

Hinata held his nose and closed his eyes before he jumped right into the ice cold water. He broke through the surface with a gasp and blinked the water out of his eyes, his hair clinging to his face, his heart beating hard from the sudden chill. 

“Shouyou! Took you long enough!” 

Nishinoya swam over, a wide grin on his face. 

“What's up with Kageyama?”, Suga called from where he was treading water. 

“He's grumpy and annoying and boring”, Hinata complained. 

“Royalty is obviously too good to get their precious skin wet.” 

“Shut up, you're annoying, too!”, he shouted at Tsukishima and started bringing more distance between him and the annoying other middle blocker, trying to ignore the slumped figure of Kageyama in the shadow of a tree, still on the grass. 

Where was the fun in sitting there instead of going with him? Hinata held his nose and dipped his head underwater for a bit, hoping the water could not only drown out the noise, but also his own thoughts. This was not going like he had imagined it would. 

It was fun, yes. But Yachi thought something was off, too, and Hinata was still frustrated that Kageyama wouldn't join the fun. Everything would be much more awesome with him. They swum around, held water fights, had those same fights broken up by Daichi again and fought over the beach ball. 

At some point they went to a point closer to shore where the taller ones of them could stand. (Nishinoya and Hinata still had to paddle to stay over the surface and quietly traded glances, admitting that they wouldn't comment on it at all.) 

Tanaka took Hinata on his shoulders who whooped and clung to his head while Nishinoya made Asahi take him on his shoulders. (He was the one who had the idea in the first place, and nobody really saw where it was leading yet, even though Daichi had an impending feeling of doom already.) 

“What now!” Hinata laughed hysterically. It was tons of fun balancing on Tanaka's shoulder.

“Now we fight to the death!” 

Asahi took a step away from Tanaka and Hinata, despite of Nishinoya's protests. 

“I really don't think we should -” 

“Don't be shy, I'll knock Hinata down into the water first, it'll be fine -” 

It wasn't fine. It wasn't fine at all. In retrospect, Hinata only remembered yelling and screeching while Tanaka encouraged him to take Noya down, Asahi sounded very worried and like he would rather be _anywhere_ than here, someone else yelled at them to stop it, and there was a lot of hand movements and clinging. Hinata just closed his eyes and kept screaming and laughing until everyone went down. He got an elbow into his ribs and a kick in his shin, swallowed the gallons of water he had prepared to swallow in a fight with Kageyama and kicked someone else as he pushed his way up to the surface again. 

“Oh my God!” 

They were all far too busy laughing and coughing, and Tanaka wrapped an arm around Hinata to keep him over the surface as he failed to calm down. 

“Say, do any of you have any sense of safety?” 

Daichi's voice and smile were colder than the water and more effective than ice might have been. Tanaka shifted Hinata to hold him like a living shield in front of him and Hinata was frozen solid in fear, which was the only reason he didn't struggle and complain. 

“I can't believe you participated in this.” 

Asahi squeaked and fled underwater. 

They all survived. Barely. Nishinoya whispered he had seen his life flashing before his eyes and Hinata tried not to laugh too hard when he sat down on the edge of the jetty, the sun hot on his drying skin and his feet still in the cool water. The entire team had taken up the platform in the middle of the lake, holding their feet into the water or leaning back on sun warmed planks of wood, eyes to the sky. 

Ennoshita was teasing Kiyoko about something. Yachi looked like she was about to doze off. Suga complained that he wanted a sunhat, while Nishinoya was just quietly laughing to himself without a reason. Hinata looked around at everyone sprawled around, and in that moment, he felt like he really _was_ part of a team. It was nothing new, of course. But every once and then, realisation would hit him and he'd feel warm and grateful all over. 

Only this time, there was still a vital part lacking, and Hinata wouldn't stand for it any longer. 

“Can you bring sunscreen along, too?”, Suga called after him. “I can _feel_ my skin burning already.” 

“Sure!” 

Hinata was about to break into a run when he remembered Daichi's remark about running on wet wood from earlier and forced himself to walk at a normal pace. 

Kageyama had earbuds in and was leaning against a tree by now, eyes closed. There wasn't a wrinkle on his face - Hinata had never really seen him that peaceful. He must have actually dozed off. Or maybe he _did_ die of boredom. 

Hinata turned on his heel to get the sunscreen and wondered what he would do to wake Kageyama up. It would probably be possible to hold food under his nose, wait until he smelled it and came back to the living thanks to that, but that wouldn't be half as funny as splashing water all over him. 

Or drawing a moustache on his face. 

Hinata's eyes widened as he tried to take in the sheer glory of this idea. Would he be able to pull it off in time? Kageyama would probably kill him. But if he hid behind Tanaka before he could get him – the senpais would protect him. Maybe. It was totally worth a shot. He dumped his entire bag onto one of the blankets they brought along and rifled through everything he had. 

There was no sharpie, but the ball pen would have to do. Hinata drew a tiny snail just above the base of his thumb and nodded in satisfaction as he finished with two dots for the eyes. It worked. 

He threw everything else back into his bag, took the sunscreen for Suga and made his way over to Kageyama as sneakily as possible, hiding behind bushes and trees and ignoring the weird stares he got for tip-toeing around between sunbathing people on towels.   
He was a ninja on an important mission. He didn't have time for mere mortals and their glances his way. They didn't understand the incredible amount of satisfaction that would come with pulling this off. 

Finally, he held his breath as he knelt down in front of Kageyama, the pen ready in his hand.

Easy now, easy. He needed to stay absolutely calm and focused. One wrong move and Kageyama might wake up. He gently placed the pen on Kageyama's right cheek and then things happened all at once. 

Blue eyes snapped open, surprise in them turning into murderous intent in less than a second. With a screech Hinata jumped back, only glimpsing a straight line on Kageyama's face he left in his jump backwards, before he started running. 

“I'm going to _kill you_. What the heck were you thinking! Come back here, dumbass!” 

Hinata jumped over bags, blankets, several dogs and nearly smacked into a tree when he tried to avoid running into a kissing couple. He ran until his lungs burned, adrenaline surging through his system as Kageyama came closer and closer, the headstart quickly melting away even though Kageyama had stopped at their blanket to dump his MP3-Player there. Hinata could basically feel him breathing down his neck already. 

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”, he yelled between his ragged breaths. 

“You will _pay_!” 

“Have mercy!” 

“Stop running!” 

“Noooooo - !” 

Finally, Hinata slipped on the grass in a particularly sharp turn he had wanted to pull off, and gave up as he lay on the ground, panting. Kageyama fell to his knees next to him, looming over him like the angel of vengeance. (Was there an angel of vengeance? Probably. Kageyama made him believe in one.) 

Granted, the intimidation was a bit less effective as Kageyama's face was all splotchy and red from the mad sprint in this heat, and he still had a blue line on his cheek. 

“You – okay?”, Kageyama asked, still gulping for air. Hinata rolled onto his back and blinked up at him in surprise. 

“Yeah.” 

The fall hadn't been that hard or anything. 

“Good. Then - I can kill you.” 

“H-hey! Wait! Stop! No!” 

Hinata curled in on himself and rolled to the side, hiding his face. Kageyama tried to pry his hands off, but eventually gave up and settled for writing something on the side of his neck. Hinata started giggling uncontrollably and tried to wiggle free, but Kageyama pinned him down and made sure to write the word out slowly and deliberatly, and then add something that felt suspiciously like a drawing. By the time he was done, Hinata was in tears and hunched up his shoulders to hide his neck as soon as Kageyama let go of him. 

“You look like a turtle”, Kageyama told him, the look on his face incredibly smug. 

“You idiot! I drew one line! You wrote something there! What is it, what did you write!” 

Hinata nearly dislodged his neck trying to read what Kageyama had written, but to no avail. He'd have to wait until he could ask somebody to tell him. 

“Ugh. You're insufferable. And I can't believe you're still wearing a shirt. At least get rid of that. You're so boring today, what's up with you! Are you sick or something?” 

“I'm not sick!” Kageyama pulled his shirt over his head and dumped it into the grass next to him. “Happy now?” 

“You need sunscreen.” 

Hinata held the bottle out. Kageyama rolled his eyes when he took it. 

They were sitting in the shadow of a large tree, with sun spots dancing all over them. A mild breeze cooled them down at least a little, and Hinata blinked up at the tree top over him and smiled, his heart still beating way too fast. 

“Can you do my back?” 

“Huh?” 

“My back. I can't reach it. That's what usually happens to people.” 

“Shut up! I'm not dumb. Give it here.” 

Hinata snatched the bottle back and squeezed two dots and a squiggly smiling mouth on Kageyama's back, who definitely shivered at the coldness of it. Heh. 

Instead of starting to spread it with his palm, he dipped his finger tip into the sunscreen and drew some more stuff. Obviously a volleyball belonged on Kageyama's back. And a sun. Maybe some flowers. And a cat. Hinata wondered if he could take a picture of the cat in time and send it over to Kenma, but half of his portrait started dissolving already. 

Artistic as it was, his method of spreading sunscreen wasn't very effective either, and Hinata waited for Kageyama to call him out on that, but he never did. He patiently waited as Hinata used his back as a canvas. 

_Sunscreen on idiot_ , Hinata thought, and giggled to himself. 

Finally, he put some more sunscreen on his hands to do it properly this time, just to be on the safe side so that Kageyama would really be protected against the sun. No matter how much he tried to spread it, though, Kageyama's back still looked pretty white. Whoops. 

“You done yet?” 

Hinata wiped his hands on his own arms, bit his lip and silently thanked whatever Gods may be for the fact that Kageyama couldn't see his back. 

“Yup!” 

“Good, then. Can I go back now?” 

That was when Hinata realised that he had originally come here to bring the last missing member of the team onto the jetty, too, so they could all enjoy the sun together. 

“Nope, you can't! We have sunscreen to deliver, come along.” 

Hinata grabbed his hand, pulled Kageyama up to his feet and along, ignoring his protests. 

“Oi, I told you, I don't want to get into the water -” 

“We're not going into the water. We'll just relax. You can be in the middle of the lake and still stay dry, you know. That's literally why they built the jetty.” 

Kageyama didn't protest any more, and Hinata felt a happy smile tugging at his lips as he returned with his partner in tow, finally uniting the entire team. This was what a day out at the lake was supposed to be like. 

“Oh, thank God!”, Suga called when he saw them approaching. “You guys took ages!” 

Suga did look pretty red already, so it was no wonder he got up to take the bottle immediately. His eyes fell on Hinata's neck and he grinned when he opened the bottle. 

“What does it say?”, Hinata asked urgently. Tsukishima turned around and leaned a bit closer, lowering his voice. 

“He wrote 'queen of the court'.” 

Hinata squeaked and covered his neck again. No way! He whirled around to Kageyama, eyes wide as he looked up at him, wordlessly demanding an explanation for this kind of betrayal. Kageyama was blushing and spluttered something while everyone started crowding around Hinata to get a look at whatever caused the ruckus. 

“Oi, come on, show us!”, Nishinoya demanded while prying his hands off. Hinata pressed his cheek to his shoulder to hide Kageyama's dumb revenge, but Tanaka had seen it already and threw his head back laughing. 

“Good one, Tsukishima!” 

Nishinoya seemed disappointed. 

“That's not what it says there.” 

“It's not?”, Hinata asked in a small voice, not daring to hope that he would not have to suffer through this kind of embarrassment after all. 

“No, it just says 'Dumbass' in horrible handwriting. And there's some random lines.” Nishinoya leaned even closer, squinting. 

“What _is_ that? It looks a bit like a lion … that got run over by a truck ...” 

“Is that supposed to be a chibi Hinata?”, Suga asked. Nishinoya and Tanaka doubled over laughing while Kageyama blushed the darkest shade of red Hinata had ever seen on him. 

“That's really adorable!” Yachi smiled an encouraging smile at Kageyama, which only made it all the worse. 

“I think it would make an art teacher weep”, Ennoshita dead-panned. 

Kageyama took a deep breath as if he was about to either yell at them or defend his art or both at once, but simply closed his mouth again and looked lost for a second before Suga interrupted. 

“Anyway, now that we're all here, how about we play a game together?” 

There was just enough space for them all to fit on the platform and settle for an easy game: tossing the ball to each other, and who let it fall into the water would have to go get it. 

Hinata felt like it was a bit too easy until he realised that everyone was out for each other's head. He was the first one to get wet again as he had to dive after a ball Tanaka basically shot past his face. 

After that, everyone knew that this was war and tossed with the intention of having the other one dive back into the lake again. The ball was flying around way too fast and the longer it was in play, the more reckless the maneuvers got and the higher the tension was. Everyone was big on the teasing, even though it was a gurantee to get the ball next and with an even worse chance of being able to get it in time. (At some point Nishinoya and Tanaka just hit it back and forth while riling each other up.) 

Yachi was done with the game really fast and jumped into the water with the intention to get back to shore. Kiyoko followed her. Some guilty glances were traded between the boys still on the jetty, and they called apologies after them. 

“It's fine! Have fun!”, Yachi called back. She sent one last bright smile their way, and then Tsukishima hit a ball right into Hinata's head. Of course it bounced off and landed in the water.

“Oh, sorry, were you still distracted?” 

Yamaguchi snickered next to Tsukishima, who looked far too smug. Daichi gave him an unimpressed stare and told him to go get the ball, which made up for the stinging for sure. Hinata made sure to laugh extra loudly at the dumb middle blocker, and it didn't quite seem like a coincidence when Kageyama tossed it to him the next time he got the ball, so that Tsukishima had to take another dive. 

Still dripping, he glared at Kageyama when he had finally made his way back. 

“You won't get this one, king. Guess you'll have to get your precious skin wet.” 

“Bring it on.” 

Asahi raised his hands with a muttered “Come on, now”, but everybody ignored his attempts at pacifying the situation. Tsukishima hit the ball just far enough that it could still count as 'in Kageyama's direction', but it forced him to move quickly. Without a second thought, Kageyama moved naturally, grazing the ball with his fingers and managing to get it back to Suga, who was about to toss it to Daichi just as Kageyama's feet landed on the jetty again. 

And finally, Hinata understood Daichi's problem with running on wet wood. 

Kageyama slipped and fell backwards, arms outstretched, but there was nothing to hold on to. He went down with a big splash. 

There was stunned silence for a second, before the team erupted into laughter, Tsukishima one of the loudest of them all. 

The corners of Hinata's mouth twitched, but there was a deeply unsettling feeling in his stomach, like the dread before a big game, but … _worse_ , somewhat. Something was off. 

He had seen Kageyama's expression as he fell, and it had been a look of utter terror. No matter how much you hated getting wet, nobody would have such sheer _panic_ on their face just because they fell into a lake. 

Hinata looked around – nobody else seemed worried. Was he just being paranoid? 

There was no splashing, no waving arms or anything. Kageyama wasn't yelling for help. It was quiet except for the laughter, but the lack of signs from Kageyama didn't help him calm down in the slightest. 

From what he knew, Kageyama was fine – if he'd be in trouble, he'd be loud and everyone would notice. Right? 

Ah, screw that. That fall shouldn't have made Kageyama sink too far. He should be above surface already, and when he'd see him, he'd stop feeling so bad. Hinata stumbled forward, relieved when he saw Kageyama's head, his mouth coming up for a second and gasping for air, before he bobbed right under again. 

He looked like he was threading water and didn't give any sign that he was in trouble – not really. But Hinata's heart was still racing and all he wanted to do was to get Kageyama the hell out of there. 

He lay down on the edge of the jetty and held out his hand to him. 

“I'll pull you up! Take my hand!” 

Kageyama didn't react, all he did was get his mouth above surface for a second again, gulping for air, and when his friend went under again it finally _hit Hinata_. This wasn't a movie where people waved and called for help. This was _Kageyama_ and he was _actually drowning_. Without making as much as a sound. 

It was terrifying. 

Without a second of hesitation, Hinata jumped into the water next to him, trying to get a hold of him and keep him above the surface, but in his panic Kageyama clung to him with so much force, it pushed them both right under. 

Hinata tried to push them back up, kicking his legs as hard as he could, but Kageyama wouldn't stop struggling and they dipped under again and again and again. It was hard enough to even gasp for breath right now. 

The panic numbed his mind and made it impossible to think of any way to safely get out of the water. Each time they went under again, Hinata's focus on the next gulp of breath was occupying his mind more than getting out of the water and to safety. 

He tried to tell Kageyama that it was okay and he was there and he should just _calm down and stop struggling so Hinata could get them both out_ but he could never get out more than a few syllables. 

At this rate they'd both go under, but he couldn't let go of Kageyama, no way in hell - 

Hinata swallowed water, coughed, gasped for more air, his mind blanking more and more as his legs grew weaker - only his grip on Kageyama seemed to remain strong. 

When he felt arms wrap around him, Hinata nearly started struggling as much as Kageyama did, but a second later he was above surface and kept there. He took deep, deep breaths and could hear Kageyama doing the same next to him with urgency, could feel the heaving of his chest as he was holding him. 

Hinata had never felt such relief in his life. Kageyama was breathing. He was spluttering, coughing and _breathing_. 

“It's alright, it's alright”, Hinata could hear Daichi say over and over, but that didn't really matter to him; the rise and fall of Kageyama's chest was the only thing that assured him in this moment. His fingers were numb and his head was empty, but he was still holding on to Kageyama. 

Hinata leaned forward, resting his forehead between his friend's shoulder blades, and breathed. 

Suga was calling something about medics – everyone was calling something, but their voices blurred together and didn't make much sense, and all Hinata knew for sure was that Kageyama was still there and close and not horribly quiet, struggling to stay above the surface and failing. 

(The image of Kageyama like that still flickering in his mind only spiked more panic in this aftermath.) 

Hinata tried to help Daichi and Tanaka – who held Kageyama afloat – in reaching the latter that lead out of the water by kicking his legs, even though he probably wasn't of much help. As his lungs were filled with enough oxygen that wasting it felt safe again, he whispered all the reassurances he wanted to fill Kageyama up with until he stopped coughing and breathing so hard and fast. 

When they finally reached solid ground, Hinata blindly grasped for Kageyama's wrist – he needed the reassurance that he was _still there_ – while his friend spat out water and kept coughing. Now that Hinata could focus on him, the ragged noises Kageyama made as he lay on his side sliced right through him. 

They were cuts somewhere deep inside, throbbing and aching with every new cough and every desperate gulp of air, every noise that sounded like Kageyama was trying not to sob. The water was dripping from his hair, and somehow Hinata knew that the drops running down his cheeks weren't just lake water. The line he had drawn on his cheek earlier was smudged, and that tiny detail made him choke up. 

He so desperately wanted and needed Kageyama to be okay, Hinata wished he could wrap his entire existence around him to protect him. 

Kageyama was shaking and even though Suga put a hand on his shoulder and tried to get him to breathe slowly – he still snapped back into hyperventilating, his breathing erratic, as if his lungs still weren't used to the feeling of having enough oxygen again. At this rate, Hinata was afraid he would pass out. 

Seeing Kageyama like this made Hinata feel like there was still no solid ground under him after all. 

Kageyama worked his wrist free from his grip and found his hand, squeezed it. Hinata did the same, tried to convey through that touch what he wanted Kageyama to know: _You'll be okay, you're Kageyama after all. I'm here and you'll be okay, because you're amazing and there's nowhere else you could be but right next to me._

How – how could he not have known? What would have happened if - ? 

The image was so horrible, Hinata started to cry just thinking about it. Or maybe it was the stress. He clung to Kageyama's hand even harder, holding onto him when Nishinoya and Tanaka started covering them in more and more towels. (Suga had to stop them after Kageyama had five towels spread over him and Hinata had three around his shoulder.)

Daichi kept the upset team in check so that they wouldn't all talk at once and give them some space. Hinata was grateful for that - there were lots of apologies and concerned questions and   
he didn't feel capable of answering any of them. And Kageyama was in a _much_ worse state than him.

The sun's warmth on his skin didn't register anymore – the only warmth he could still feel was Kageyama's hand in his, and the small ball of light inside of him when he realised that Kageyama's breathing had finally calmed down somewhat. With a small, strained noise the setter used his free hand to push himself up. Unsure whether to make him lie down or help him up, Hinata anxiously waited a few second before he settled for helping him push off some of the towels and wrapped an arm around him to help him into a sitting position. Kageyama slumped against him, head leaned on his shoulder (wasn't that incredibly uncomfortable?). 

Suga wrapped a big towel around both of their shoulders and kept close to Kageyama in case anything else would happen. 

“How are you feeling?”, he asked him, his voice soft. 

“Like shit”, Kageyama rasped, and Hinata might have laughed if it hadn't sounded so defeated and weak. He squeezed Kageyama's hand again. 

The medics found them like this - and while Hinata did have to move when they checked up on Kageyama, he still insisted on staying close, listening to everything they said. (They checked up on him, too, even though he didn't understand why. He was fine. He hadn't even been in the water for that long … maybe? Time had stopped working at that point.) 

Apparently, Kageyama had been lucky, and simply needed warmth and rest. His tired, horrified expression made it hard for Hinata to link the word lucky to his friend right now, but when he thought of what might have been, lucky suddenly seemed like the right word. 

Kageyama was weak on his feet when they could finally leave the jetty, and Hinata had to steady him. They were a silent procession with Daichi and Suga in front and close by, in case they'd have to help the first years. The rest followed, their expressions shocked and empty. 

Yachi's eyes were red-rimmed and she hugged both of them before she made them sit down on the grass and switched the wet towels for warm and dry ones (there seemed to be an endless supply of towels for some reason.) Everyone plopped down in the grass around them, but nobody was able to find their usual joy or enthusiam, even when Yachi and Kiyoko opened plastic boxes and passed watermelon slices around. 

Hinata didn't have any appetite, but the sweetness on his tongue brought back some links to reality, to summer days that weren't interrupted by the most horrible of nightmares. The sticky juice on his fingers grounded him in reality, somewhat. It was good to be reminded that there was still something else than Kageyama's terrified, terrified expression when he fell, and they way he had looked in the water, when Hinata hadn't even realised what was happening at first - 

(Everytime he closed his eyes, the image would flash back up again, as if it had burned itself into his retinas.) 

Kageyama still had not looked anybody in the eye. He just sat there, shoulders hunched, nibbling on his watermelon without much of an appetite. Everyone seemed anxious to approach him, to make sure again he was alright, but he only nodded or shook his head to most of the questions, so nobody really dared to ask him more, and everyone was more or less scared to force him to talk. 

And while this was probably the worst timing, and not the best solution for this - Hinata couldn't … wait much longer. The questions was ringing in his mind over and over, so he broke the silence and voiced it. 

“Why didn't you tell us?” 

Seriously – _why_? 

Kageyama chewed on his watermelon, looked away, lifted his shoulders in a weak shrug. 

“It's … something everyone should know how to do, right?” 

Hinata was about to say something about how dumb that was because _wow_ it had nearly cost him his life and Kageyama hadn't told them because he was _embarrassed_? He could tell them things like that (and he could tell _him_ \- they were friends, right?) Hinata would even teach him how to swim if he wanted - 

But he kept his mouth shut when he saw that Asahi wanted to say something. They weren't even in class, yet he raised his hand until Daichi nodded at him with an exasperated little smile. 

“I … I don't know how to ride a bike.” 

He was met with silence. Hinata blinked, tilted his head, and looked at him in confusion. 

“I was … afraid of the height of the saddle as a child … and then I never learned.” 

Nishinoya chuckled quietly next to him, patting his back. 

“That's so you.” 

Yachi ducked her head while shyly holding up her hand next to her face. Daichi nodded at her, too, and her voice wobbled a bit as she started talking. 

“One time there was a spider on my bed … and I was so terrified I slept under the kitchen table for four nights until my mother noticed.” 

More people laughed at that - not the kind of laughter that was meant to make Yachi feel bad, but one that started tipping the grave atmosphere to something more light hearted, something that warmed the air around them. Yachi smiled. 

Nishinoya raised his hand, too, but didn't wait to talk. 

“I'm so horrible at cooking I messed up boiled eggs.” 

Tanaka burst out into hysterical giggling at that. He tried to calm himself down, put a hand over his mouth, was quiet for a second, and burst into even louder laughter afterwards. Most people joined in, Tanaka's laughter was infectious. 

“I'm so horrible at cooking, the one time I tried to cook for -” Daichi trailed off quickly, but the glance to Suga gave him away. “I managed to get tomatoe sauce on the ceiling and ruined a pan and a pot.… and a kitchen rag. And some clothes ...” 

Daichi took the hysterical laughter in stride, even though Suga made sure to describe Daichi's mildly traumatised expression when Suga had found him in the middle of the kitchen with a half-burned kitchen rug clutched to his chest in great detail. 

“I will never be able to beat my sister in arm wrestling”, Tanaka threw in, wiping at his eyes from all the laughing at Daichi's poor cooking skills - everyone else just nodded along, because that was kind of a given, while still amusing. 

After Yamaguchi had elbowed him into the side multiple times, Tsukishima awkwardly cleared his throat. 

“I can't see well without my glasses.” 

Everyone broke into the loudest laughter so far. 

“That was so lame, Tsukki.” 

Yamaguchi shook his head, a smile still on his face. 

When Hinata looked at Kageyama next to him, he was holding his head higher, his cheeks stuffed with melon. Some of the juice was dripping down his chin. His hair was nearly dry by now, still messed up, and the colour on his face looked a lot more healthy. 

Suga raised his hand. “One time I made a child cry.” 

Everyone's heads turned. 

“No way!” 

Suga grinned and nodded. 

“I actually suck at English”, Kiyoko added. There was a chorus of 'No way!'s, from Yachi, Nishinoya and Tanaka, and mild chaos all around as the three of them voiced their disbelief while others were still pestering Suga about details on how on earth he had made a child cry. 

Ennoshita shrugged and dropped his sentence into the chaos. 

“I nearly burned our house down with a vanilla scented candle.” 

That got everyone's attention again. After a beat of silence, a combination of gasps and hollers came as a reaction to that. 

“You're so cooool!”, Nishinoya declared, but shut up quickly when he saw Daichi's gaze leveled at him. It was no good idea to appreciate fire around the captain. 

“I told everyone I broke my nose during club activity but I actually ran into a glass door”, Yamaguchi offered. Tsukishima was trembling with snickers next to him, and everyone else couldn't help but crack up, too. The mental image alone was gold. 

Hinata's heart danced when he noticed that just for a split second, there was the hint of a smile on Kageyama's lips, too. 

And not a hint of the atmosphere from before. Everyone was joking around and chattering, their cheeks flushed from all the laughter. 

Alright, Hinata's turn. The more embarassing his story was, the more likely it was that Kageyama would smile. 

“I tried to help my sister with math and she ended up lecturing me.” 

Everyone started howling with laughter, but Hinata mostly cared about Kageyama's reaction. He turned to look at him, a hint of a smirk on his face, with something more genuine underneath.

“Of course, she's a lot smarter than you.” 

“Shut up”, Hinata told him without meaning it, grateful that Kageyama was returning to his old self again, even though the echo of this experience was still visible on his features and in the way he held himself. 

While they sat like this, sweet watermelons in their sticky hands and trading embarassing stories, Hinata truly felt like he belonged to a team. A team that would have his back, no matter what, stick up for him and be there when he needed them - and a team that was way too fast to tease if one teammate's little sister was better than him at math. 

“Hey! It's not my fault I don't know how to school! Kageyama doesn't either!” 

“Shut up, dumbass.” 

Hinata rubbed at his neck, and laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> This story seriously gave me such a headache because Kageyama and Hinata just did whatever the heck they wanted. Like the first part was just 'let's try getting Kageyama into the water' but then they started chasing each other and drawing dumb things on each other and then when I finally had Kageyama in the water I swear to God I intended Hinata to get him out but then it was like 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING IF KARASUNO WOULDN'T BE THERE WITH YOU YOU'D BE IN FUCKING TROUBLE' and I think I had a small life crisis but hey. 
> 
> Maybe one day I'll write a drabble about how on earth Suga made a child cry, oh Lord.  
> As always, if any of you want to come fangirl about Haikyuu!! with me, feel free to send me asks over on citrusfluegel.tumblr.com!


End file.
